Best of Selected NYC Restaurants

[Food on the brain]

Hi All,

We have been given the following restaurants to choose gift certificates to. What do you recommend??? Love great food and great wine! Don't know any of these!

Arno Ristorante
Battery Gardens
BiCE
Delmonico's
Fino Wall Street
Grotta Azzurra
Heartland Brewery
Mansion Restaurant
Murano Ristorante
Ristorante DeGrezia
San Martin Restaurant
Vlada Lounge
York Grill

Thanks all!

[Food on the brain]

Greetings all.

Thanks for your thoughts. We actually went with Delmonico's, and it worked out really well. Had an early dinner before theater, and had time to get to the theater without having to rush. It was a great evening for an adult brother, sister, and senior mom & dad having first dinner just the 4 of us in over 20 years!

[FoodWine]

Glad to hear that.
While this post is way too late for the OP, I want to point out that the wonderfully talented chef, Rick Laakkonen is now at Delmonico's, and it shows.

We recently enjoyed a wonderful dinner for 3 there and vowed to come back even though we are not your typical steak house patrons: two of us do not eat red meat, and one of them does not eat fowl either.
Nevertheless, the we all loved the cuisine. For example: the lobster bisque was sublime; the beef tenderloin carpaccio was absolutely wonderful (best I have tasted). The blue crab cakes were terrific: the inside was just fresh pieces of crab meat, only the outside had a light tasty and crisp breading. The fish (trout) was excellent, as was the classic Lobster Newburg - and the Delmonico Steak.

The staff was professional attentive and very friendly, from the beginning to end. Actually they went the extra mile to make us happy.

Now that Chef Laakkonen is at Delmonico's, I am planning to go back, a lot (and to eat his specials any time I see them on the menu).

http://www.delmonicosny.com/

[eameyer]

I'd go with Delmonicos. Anywhere but Heartland!

[financialdistrictresident]

Heartland does have good salads . . .

[City Kid]

I have eaten at Delmonico (OK, super-touristy), Heartland (mall restaurant), DeGrezia (old-style, overpriced northern Italian), and York Grill (not a great experience but based on the comments of others, I would give it another try).

[stephaniec25]

I order from Arno all them time and its delicious, although the scene doesn't look very interesting in the restaurant itself.

Bice might be your best option, but its really overpriced and everything on the menu has a lot of "stuff" on it (i.e. tries to be very 80s gourmet).

Or maybe go with Delmonico's...

Heartland Brewery is a typical tourist trap outside of the Empire State Buildling and I definitely wouldn't go for that.

[drumwine]

I'd go with Delmonico's....steaks are still good, and there is the historic aspect to it.

[financialdistrictresident]

Just went to Delmonico's (bar NOT dining room) and food is pretty good. Ditto previous posts re: history (first fine dining in U.S., delmonico steak, baked Alaska, oysters rockefeller too I think).

[Pan]

Heartland sucks. Definitely don't go there, Food on the brain. I haven't been to any of the other places on the list, so I'll just let others' remarks speak for themselves.

[Food on the brain]

Thanks so much for all your feedback. I'm with chow_gal that these are all lame picks, but, hey, we've been given some "dinner & show" certificates for our quick trip in, and these are the dinner picks. I'm into town to help get a house ready to sell, and would love a really nice dinner, but.........

So, had looked at all the menus, and Arno, Bice, and Delmonico's were really the only ones I was considering. Thanks all!

[kim e]

Wow...I've only heard of 3 on the list. I think I'd go with Delmonico's.

[chow_gal]

I'm trying to figure out why someone would have that group as a selection. Are they all part of the same Restaurant group? Or maybe the OP knows someone who counts them all as clients somehow?

[foodnwine]

I've eaten at Delmonico's for both lunch and dinner and liked it. I'm not familiar with the others on the list.

[chow_gal]

These are all pretty lame, IMO. Bice, I guess but totally eurotrash, overpriced midtown place.

[baldwinwood]

Gotta agree with Chow-gal here, that list is pretty lame. Bice is waaaaaaaaaay overpriced and filed with hookers and eurtrash.

[MMRuth]

I've had decent food at Bice. I've read good things on this board about York Grill, but havn't tried it. Haven't heard of the other places, except Delmonico's, which I've not been to.

[LeahBaila]

I'd go with Bice.

www.thelunchbelle.com